An example of a conventional organic luminescence device is e.g., one using luminescence of a vacuum-deposited anthracene film (Thin Solid Films, 94 (1982) 171). Recently, however, in view of the advantages, such as ease of providing a large-area device compared with an inorganic luminescence device, and a possibility of realizing desired luminescence colors due to the development of various new materials and drivability at low voltages, extensive studies thereof for the production of high-speed responsive and high efficiency luminescence devices have been conducted.
As precisely described in Macromol. Symp. 125, 1-48 (1997), for example, an organic EL device generally has an organization comprising a pair of upper and lower electrodes formed on a transparent substrate, and organic material layers including a luminescence layer disposed between the electrodes.
In the luminescence layer, aluminum quinolinol complexes (inclusive of Alq3 shown hereinafter as a representative example) having an electron-transporting characteristic and a luminescence characteristic, are used for example. In a hole-transporting layer, a material having an electron-donative property, such as a triphenyldiamine derivative (inclusive of α-NPD shown hereinafter as a representative example), is used for example.
Such a device shows a current-rectifying characteristic such that when an electric field is applied between the electrodes, holes are injected from the anode and electrons are injected from the cathode.
The injected holes and electrons are recombined in the luminescence layer to form excitons, which emit luminescence when they are transitioned to the ground state.
In this process, the excited states include a singlet state and a triplet state and a transition from the former to the ground state is called fluorescence and a transition from the latter is called phosphorescence. Materials in theses states are called singlet excitons and triplet excitons, respectively.
In most of the organic luminescence devices studied heretofore, fluorescence caused by the transition of a singlet exciton to the ground state, has been utilized. On the other hand, in recent years, devices utilizing phosphorescence via triplet excitons have been studied.
Representative published literature may include:
Article 1: Improved energy transfer in electrophosphorescent device (D. F. O'Brien, et al., Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 74, No. 3, p. 422 (1999)); and
Article 2: Very high-efficiency green organic light-emitting devices based on electrophosphorescence (M. A. Baldo, et al., Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 75, No. 1, p. 4 (1999)).
In these articles, a structure including four organic layers sandwiched between the electrodes, and the materials used therein include carrier-transporting materials and phosphorescent materials, of which the names and structures are shown below together with their abbreviations.
Alq3: aluminum quinolinol complex
α-NPD: N4,N4′-di-naphthalene-1-yl-N4,N4′-diphenyl-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine
CBP: 2,9-dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline
PtOEP: platinum-octaethylporphyrin complex
Ir(ppy)3: iridium-phenylpyridine complex

The above-mentioned Articles 1 and 2 both have reported structures, as exhibiting a high efficiency, including a hole-transporting layer comprising α-NPD, an electron-transporting layer comprising Alq3, an exciton diffusion-preventing layer comprising BCP, and a luminescence layer comprising CBP as a host and ca. 6% of PtOEP or Ir(ppy)3 as a phosphorescent material dispersed in mixture therein.
Such a phosphorescent material is particularly noted at present because it is expected to provide a high luminescence efficiency in principle for the following reasons. More specifically, excitons formed by carrier recombination comprise singlet excitons and triplet excitons in a probability ratio of 1:3. Conventional organic EL devices have utilized fluorescence of which the luminescence efficiency is limited to at most 25%. On the other hand, if phosphorescence generated from triplet excitons is utilized, an efficiency of at least three times is expected, and even an efficiency of 100%, i.e., four times, can be expected in principle, it a transition owing to intersystem crossing from a singlet state having a higher energy to a triplet state is taken into account.
However, like a fluorescent-type device, such an organic luminescence device utilizing phosphorescence is generally required to be further improved regarding the deterioration of luminescence efficiency and device stability.
The reason of the deterioration has not been fully clarified, but the present inventors consider as follows based on the mechanism of phosphorescence.
In the case where the luminescence layer comprises a host material having a carrier-transporting function and a phosphorescent guest material, a process of phosphorescence via triplet excitons may include unit processes as follows:
1. transportation of electrons and holes within a luminescence layer,
2. formation of host excitons,
3. excitation energy transfer between host molecules,
4. excitation energy transfer from the host to the guest,
5. formation of guest triplet excitons, and
6. transition of the guest triplet excitons to the ground state and phosphorescence.
Desirable energy transfer in each unit process and luminescence are caused in competition with various energy deactivation processes.
Needless to say, a luminescence efficiency of an organic luminescence device is increased by increasing the luminescence quantum yield of a luminescence center material.
Particularly, in a phosphorescent material, this may be attributable to a life of the triplet excitons which is longer by three or more digits than the life of a singlet exciton. More specifically, because it is held in a high-energy excited state for a longer period, it is liable to react with surrounding materials and cause polymer formation among the excitons, thus incurring a higher probability of deactivation process resulting in a material change or life deterioration.
Further, in view of the formation of a full-color display device, luminescence materials providing luminescence colors which are as close as possible to pure three primary colors of blue, green and red, are desired, but there have been few luminescence materials giving a luminescence color of pure red, so that the realization of a good full-color display device has been restricted.